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Firestone: Crises Across the Decades SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

Case Study SWOT Analysis Solution

Case Study Description of Firestone: Crises Across the Decades


A PBS documentary has uncovered a trove of recently discovered documents revealing a 1991 deal in which Firestone agreed to pay Liberian warlord Charles Taylor $2.3 million in exchange for keeping its profitable rubber farm in operation during a bloody civil war. This case explores the social and economic implications of a foreign company operating in a politically unstable and economically undeveloped country. Students are asked to address the public relations crisis and explore Firestone's responsibility for confronting past wrongs, striking a balance between social equity and economic prosperity.

Authors :: Andrew Hoffman

Topics :: Global Business

Tags :: Emerging markets, Public relations, Social responsibility, SWOT Analysis, SWOT Matrix, TOWS, Weighted SWOT Analysis

Swot Analysis of "Firestone: Crises Across the Decades" written by Andrew Hoffman includes – strengths weakness that are internal strategic factors of the organization, and opportunities and threats that Firestone Pbs facing as an external strategic factors. Some of the topics covered in Firestone: Crises Across the Decades case study are - Strategic Management Strategies, Emerging markets, Public relations, Social responsibility and Global Business.


Some of the macro environment factors that can be used to understand the Firestone: Crises Across the Decades casestudy better are - – cloud computing is disrupting traditional business models, customer relationship management is fast transforming because of increasing concerns over data privacy, increasing government debt because of Covid-19 spendings, technology disruption, increasing inequality as vast percentage of new income is going to the top 1%, there is increasing trade war between United States & China, increasing household debt because of falling income levels, increasing commodity prices, wage bills are increasing, etc



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Introduction to SWOT Analysis of Firestone: Crises Across the Decades


SWOT stands for an organization’s Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats . At Oak Spring University , we believe that protagonist in Firestone: Crises Across the Decades case study can use SWOT analysis as a strategic management tool to assess the current internal strengths and weaknesses of the Firestone Pbs, and to figure out the opportunities and threats in the macro environment – technological, environmental, political, economic, social, demographic, etc in which Firestone Pbs operates in.

According to Harvard Business Review, 75% of the managers use SWOT analysis for various purposes such as – evaluating current scenario, strategic planning, new venture feasibility, personal growth goals, new market entry, Go To market strategies, portfolio management and strategic trade-off assessment, organizational restructuring, etc.




SWOT Objectives / Importance of SWOT Analysis and SWOT Matrix


SWOT analysis of Firestone: Crises Across the Decades can be done for the following purposes –
1. Strategic planning using facts provided in Firestone: Crises Across the Decades case study
2. Improving business portfolio management of Firestone Pbs
3. Assessing feasibility of the new initiative in Global Business field.
4. Making a Global Business topic specific business decision
5. Set goals for the organization
6. Organizational restructuring of Firestone Pbs




Strengths Firestone: Crises Across the Decades | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Strengths in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The strengths of Firestone Pbs in Firestone: Crises Across the Decades Harvard Business Review case study are -

Sustainable margins compare to other players in Global Business industry

– Firestone: Crises Across the Decades firm has clearly differentiated products in the market place. This has enabled Firestone Pbs to fetch slight price premium compare to the competitors in the Global Business industry. The sustainable margins have also helped Firestone Pbs to invest into research and development (R&D) and innovation.

Cross disciplinary teams

– Horizontal connected teams at the Firestone Pbs are driving operational speed, building greater agility, and keeping the organization nimble to compete with new competitors. It helps are organization to ideate new ideas, and execute them swiftly in the marketplace.

Diverse revenue streams

– Firestone Pbs is present in almost all the verticals within the industry. This has provided firm in Firestone: Crises Across the Decades case study a diverse revenue stream that has helped it to survive disruptions such as global pandemic in Covid-19, financial disruption of 2008, and supply chain disruption of 2021.

Innovation driven organization

– Firestone Pbs is one of the most innovative firm in sector. Manager in Firestone: Crises Across the Decades Harvard Business Review case study can use Clayton Christensen Disruptive Innovation strategies to further increase the scale of innovtions in the organization.

Operational resilience

– The operational resilience strategy in the Firestone: Crises Across the Decades Harvard Business Review case study comprises – understanding the underlying the factors in the industry, building diversified operations across different geographies so that disruption in one part of the world doesn’t impact the overall performance of the firm, and integrating the various business operations and processes through its digital transformation drive.

Learning organization

- Firestone Pbs is a learning organization. It has inculcated three key characters of learning organization in its processes and operations – exploration, creativity, and expansiveness. The work place at Firestone Pbs is open place that encourages instructiveness, ideation, open minded discussions, and creativity. Employees and leaders in Firestone: Crises Across the Decades Harvard Business Review case study emphasize – knowledge, initiative, and innovation.

Successful track record of launching new products

– Firestone Pbs has launched numerous new products in last few years, keeping in mind evolving customer preferences and competitive pressures. Firestone Pbs has effective processes in place that helps in exploring new product needs, doing quick pilot testing, and then launching the products quickly using its extensive distribution network.

Digital Transformation in Global Business segment

- digital transformation varies from industry to industry. For Firestone Pbs digital transformation journey comprises differing goals based on market maturity, customer technology acceptance, and organizational culture. Firestone Pbs has successfully integrated the four key components of digital transformation – digital integration in processes, digital integration in marketing and customer relationship management, digital integration into the value chain, and using technology to explore new products and market opportunities.

High brand equity

– Firestone Pbs has strong brand awareness and brand recognition among both - the exiting customers and potential new customers. Strong brand equity has enabled Firestone Pbs to keep acquiring new customers and building profitable relationship with both the new and loyal customers.

Organizational Resilience of Firestone Pbs

– The covid-19 pandemic has put organizational resilience at the centre of everthing that Firestone Pbs does. Organizational resilience comprises - Financial Resilience, Operational Resilience, Technological Resilience, Organizational Resilience, Business Model Resilience, and Reputation Resilience.

Effective Research and Development (R&D)

– Firestone Pbs has innovation driven culture where significant part of the revenues are spent on the research and development activities. This has resulted in, as mentioned in case study Firestone: Crises Across the Decades - staying ahead in the industry in terms of – new product launches, superior customer experience, highly competitive pricing strategies, and great returns to the shareholders.

Highly skilled collaborators

– Firestone Pbs has highly efficient outsourcing and offshoring strategy. It has resulted in greater operational flexibility and bringing down the costs in highly price sensitive segment. Secondly the value chain collaborators of the firm in Firestone: Crises Across the Decades HBR case study have helped the firm to develop new products and bring them quickly to the marketplace.



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Net Promoter Score



Weaknesses Firestone: Crises Across the Decades | Internal Strategic Factors
What are Weaknesses in SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis

The weaknesses of Firestone: Crises Across the Decades are -

Aligning sales with marketing

– It come across in the case study Firestone: Crises Across the Decades that the firm needs to have more collaboration between its sales team and marketing team. Sales professionals in the industry have deep experience in developing customer relationships. Marketing department in the case Firestone: Crises Across the Decades can leverage the sales team experience to cultivate customer relationships as Firestone Pbs is planning to shift buying processes online.

Increasing silos among functional specialists

– The organizational structure of Firestone Pbs is dominated by functional specialists. It is not different from other players in the Global Business segment. Firestone Pbs needs to de-silo the office environment to harness the true potential of its workforce. Secondly the de-silo will also help Firestone Pbs to focus more on services rather than just following the product oriented approach.

High bargaining power of channel partners

– Because of the regulatory requirements, Andrew Hoffman suggests that, Firestone Pbs is facing high bargaining power of the channel partners. So far it has not able to streamline the operations to reduce the bargaining power of the value chain partners in the industry.

Need for greater diversity

– Firestone Pbs has taken concrete steps on diversity, equity, and inclusion. But the efforts so far has resulted in limited success. It needs to expand the recruitment and selection process to hire more people from the minorities and underprivileged background.

High dependence on existing supply chain

– The disruption in the global supply chains because of the Covid-19 pandemic and blockage of the Suez Canal illustrated the fragile nature of Firestone Pbs supply chain. Even after few cautionary changes mentioned in the HBR case study - Firestone: Crises Across the Decades, it is still heavily dependent upon the existing supply chain. The existing supply chain though brings in cost efficiencies but it has left Firestone Pbs vulnerable to further global disruptions in South East Asia.

Products dominated business model

– Even though Firestone Pbs has some of the most successful products in the industry, this business model has made each new product launch extremely critical for continuous financial growth of the organization. firm in the HBR case study - Firestone: Crises Across the Decades should strive to include more intangible value offerings along with its core products and services.

Skills based hiring

– The stress on hiring functional specialists at Firestone Pbs has created an environment where the organization is dominated by functional specialists rather than management generalist. This has resulted into product oriented approach rather than marketing oriented approach or consumers oriented approach.

Slow to strategic competitive environment developments

– As Firestone: Crises Across the Decades HBR case study mentions - Firestone Pbs takes time to assess the upcoming competitions. This has led to missing out on atleast 2-3 big opportunities in the industry in last five years.

Capital Spending Reduction

– Even during the low interest decade, Firestone Pbs has not been able to do capital spending to the tune of the competition. This has resulted into fewer innovations and company facing stiff competition from both existing competitors and new entrants who are disrupting the industry using digital technology.

Slow decision making process

– As mentioned earlier in the report, Firestone Pbs has a very deliberative decision making approach. This approach has resulted in prudent decisions, but it has also resulted in missing opportunities in the industry over the last five years. Firestone Pbs even though has strong showing on digital transformation primary two stages, it has struggled to capitalize the power of digital transformation in marketing efforts and new venture efforts.

Compensation and incentives

– The revenue per employee as mentioned in the HBR case study Firestone: Crises Across the Decades, is just above the industry average. Firestone Pbs needs to redesign the compensation structure and incentives to increase the revenue per employees. Some of the steps that it can take are – hiring more specialists on project basis, etc.




Opportunities Firestone: Crises Across the Decades | External Strategic Factors
What are Opportunities in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The opportunities highlighted in the Harvard Business Review case study Firestone: Crises Across the Decades are -

Reforming the budgeting process

- By establishing new metrics that will be used to evaluate both existing and potential projects Firestone Pbs can not only reduce the costs of the project but also help it in integrating the projects with other processes within the organization.

Creating value in data economy

– The success of analytics program of Firestone Pbs has opened avenues for new revenue streams for the organization in the industry. This can help Firestone Pbs to build a more holistic ecosystem as suggested in the Firestone: Crises Across the Decades case study. Firestone Pbs can build new products and services such as - data insight services, data privacy related products, data based consulting services, etc.

Lowering marketing communication costs

– 5G expansion will open new opportunities for Firestone Pbs in the field of marketing communication. It will bring down the cost of doing business, provide technology platform to build new products in the Global Business segment, and it will provide faster access to the consumers.

Low interest rates

– Even though inflation is raising its head in most developed economies, Firestone Pbs can still utilize the low interest rates to borrow money for capital investment. Secondly it can also use the increase of government spending in infrastructure projects to get new business.

Manufacturing automation

– Firestone Pbs can use the latest technology developments to improve its manufacturing and designing process in Global Business segment. It can use CAD and 3D printing to build a quick prototype and pilot testing products. It can leverage automation using machine learning and artificial intelligence to do faster production at lowers costs, and it can leverage the growth in satellite and tracking technologies to improve inventory management, transportation, and shipping.

Buying journey improvements

– Firestone Pbs can improve the customer journey of consumers in the industry by using analytics and artificial intelligence. Firestone: Crises Across the Decades suggest that firm can provide automated chats to help consumers solve their own problems, provide online suggestions to get maximum out of the products and services, and help consumers to build a community where they can interact with each other to develop new features and uses.

Increase in government spending

– As the United States and other governments are increasing social spending and infrastructure spending to build economies post Covid-19, Firestone Pbs can use these opportunities to build new business models that can help the communities that Firestone Pbs operates in. Secondly it can use opportunities from government spending in Global Business sector.

Developing new processes and practices

– Firestone Pbs can develop new processes and procedures in Global Business industry using technology such as automation using artificial intelligence, real time transportation and products tracking, 3D modeling for concept development and new products pilot testing etc.

Reconfiguring business model

– The expansion of digital payment system, the bringing down of international transactions costs using Bitcoin and other blockchain based currencies, etc can help Firestone Pbs to reconfigure its entire business model. For example it can used blockchain based technologies to reduce piracy of its products in the big markets such as China. Secondly it can use the popularity of e-commerce in various developing markets to build a Direct to Customer business model rather than the current Channel Heavy distribution network.

Remote work and new talent hiring opportunities

– The widespread usage of remote working technologies during Covid-19 has opened opportunities for Firestone Pbs to expand its talent hiring zone. According to McKinsey Global Institute, 20% of the high end workforce in fields such as finance, information technology, can continously work from remote local post Covid-19. This presents a really great opportunity for Firestone Pbs to hire the very best people irrespective of their geographical location.

Changes in consumer behavior post Covid-19

– Consumer behavior has changed in the Global Business industry because of Covid-19 restrictions. Some of this behavior will stay once things get back to normal. Firestone Pbs can take advantage of these changes in consumer behavior to build a far more efficient business model. For example consumer regular ordering of products can reduce both last mile delivery costs and market penetration costs. Firestone Pbs can further use this consumer data to build better customer loyalty, provide better products and service collection, and improve the value proposition in inflationary times.

Identify volunteer opportunities

– Covid-19 has impacted working population in two ways – it has led to people soul searching about their professional choices, resulting in mass resignation. Secondly it has encouraged people to do things that they are passionate about. This has opened opportunities for businesses to build volunteer oriented socially driven projects. Firestone Pbs can explore opportunities that can attract volunteers and are consistent with its mission and vision.

Harnessing reconfiguration of the global supply chains

– As the trade war between US and China heats up in the coming years, Firestone Pbs can build a diversified supply chain model across various countries in - South East Asia, India, and other parts of the world. This reconfiguration of global supply chain can help, as suggested in case study, Firestone: Crises Across the Decades, to buy more products closer to the markets, and it can leverage its size and influence to get better deal from the local markets.




Threats Firestone: Crises Across the Decades External Strategic Factors
What are Threats in the SWOT Analysis / TOWS Matrix / Weighted SWOT Analysis


The threats mentioned in the HBR case study Firestone: Crises Across the Decades are -

Backlash against dominant players

– US Congress and other legislative arms of the government are getting tough on big business especially technology companies. The digital arm of Firestone Pbs business can come under increasing regulations regarding data privacy, data security, etc.

Learning curve for new practices

– As the technology based on artificial intelligence and machine learning platform is getting complex, as highlighted in case study Firestone: Crises Across the Decades, Firestone Pbs may face longer learning curve for training and development of existing employees. This can open space for more nimble competitors in the field of Global Business .

Technology disruption because of hacks, piracy etc

– The colonial pipeline illustrated, how vulnerable modern organization are to international hackers, miscreants, and disruptors. The cyber security interruption, data leaks, etc can seriously jeopardize the future growth of the organization.

High dependence on third party suppliers

– Firestone Pbs high dependence on third party suppliers can disrupt its processes and delivery mechanism. For example -the current troubles of car makers because of chip shortage is because the chip companies started producing chips for electronic companies rather than car manufacturers.

Stagnating economy with rate increase

– Firestone Pbs can face lack of demand in the market place because of Fed actions to reduce inflation. This can lead to sluggish growth in the economy, lower demands, lower investments, higher borrowing costs, and consolidation in the field.

Environmental challenges

– Firestone Pbs needs to have a robust strategy against the disruptions arising from climate change and energy requirements. EU has identified it as key priority area and spending 30% of its 880 billion Euros European post Covid-19 recovery funds on green technology. Firestone Pbs can take advantage of this fund but it will also bring new competitors in the Global Business industry.

Easy access to finance

– Easy access to finance in Global Business field will also reduce the barriers to entry in the industry, thus putting downward pressure on the prices because of increasing competition. Firestone Pbs can utilize it by borrowing at lower rates and invest it into research and development, capital expenditure to fortify its core competitive advantage.

Increasing international competition and downward pressure on margins

– Apart from technology driven competitive advantage dilution, Firestone Pbs can face downward pressure on margins from increasing competition from international players. The international players have stable revenue in their home market and can use those resources to penetrate prominent markets illustrated in HBR case study Firestone: Crises Across the Decades .

High level of anxiety and lack of motivation

– the Great Resignation in United States is the sign of broader dissatisfaction among the workforce in United States. Firestone Pbs needs to understand the core reasons impacting the Global Business industry. This will help it in building a better workplace.

Instability in the European markets

– European Union markets are facing three big challenges post Covid – expanded balance sheets, Brexit related business disruption, and aggressive Russia looking to distract the existing security mechanism. Firestone Pbs will face different problems in different parts of Europe. For example it will face inflationary pressures in UK, France, and Germany, balance sheet expansion and demand challenges in Southern European countries, and geopolitical instability in the Eastern Europe.

Regulatory challenges

– Firestone Pbs needs to prepare for regulatory challenges as consumer protection groups and other pressure groups are vigorously advocating for more regulations on big business - to reduce inequality, to create a level playing field, to product data privacy and consumer privacy, to reduce the influence of big money on democratic institutions, etc. This can lead to significant changes in the Global Business industry regulations.

Increasing wage structure of Firestone Pbs

– Post Covid-19 there is a sharp increase in the wages especially in the jobs that require interaction with people. The increasing wages can put downward pressure on the margins of Firestone Pbs.

Consumer confidence and its impact on Firestone Pbs demand

– There is a high probability of declining consumer confidence, given – high inflammation rate, rise of gig economy, lower job stability, increasing cost of living, higher interest rates, and aging demography. All the factors contribute to people saving higher rate of their income, resulting in lower consumer demand in the industry and other sectors.




Weighted SWOT Analysis of Firestone: Crises Across the Decades Template, Example


Not all factors mentioned under the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants in the SWOT Analysis are equal. Managers in the HBR case study Firestone: Crises Across the Decades needs to zero down on the relative importance of each factor mentioned in the Strengths, Weakness, Opportunities, and Threats quadrants. We can provide the relative importance to each factor by assigning relative weights. Weighted SWOT analysis process is a three stage process –

First stage for doing weighted SWOT analysis of the case study Firestone: Crises Across the Decades is to rank the strengths and weaknesses of the organization. This will help you to assess the most important strengths and weaknesses of the firm and which one of the strengths and weaknesses mentioned in the initial lists are marginal and can be left out.

Second stage for conducting weighted SWOT analysis of the Harvard case study Firestone: Crises Across the Decades is to give probabilities to the external strategic factors thus better understanding the opportunities and threats arising out of macro environment changes and developments.

Third stage of constructing weighted SWOT analysis of Firestone: Crises Across the Decades is to provide strategic recommendations includes – joining likelihood of external strategic factors such as opportunities and threats to the internal strategic factors – strengths and weaknesses. You should start with external factors as they will provide the direction of the overall industry. Secondly by joining probabilities with internal strategic factors can help the company not only strategic fit but also the most probably strategic trade-off that Firestone Pbs needs to make to build a sustainable competitive advantage.



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